STATION FACILITIES

Wairarapa Times-Age, 12 November 1938, Page 6

STATION FACILITIES

SOME NEEDED IMPROVEMENTS AT MASTERTON

RAILWAYS GOODS TRAFFIC

Mr Alec Young had an opportunity this week of discussing with several Railways Department officials, from the point of view of local carriers, the facilities for the loading and unloading of goods at the Masterton Railway Station. In an informal discussion, Mr Young stated that the station crane, now that it had been overhauled and reconditioned, worked splendidly in dealing with loads up to its maximum of two tons. The crane was unable, however, to lift, for example, an pantechion load of furniture, and any such load dispatched by rail from Masterton or arriving here therefore had to be unloaded and reloaded in details, a laborious and costly procedure. Mr Young is of opinion that a crane capable of lifting at least three tons should be provided. Looking to the expansion of traffic, he said, it might be advisable to install an electric crane capable of lifting four tons.

Other improvements greatly needed at Masterton, Mr Young observed, were an enlargement of the goods shed and the provision of a roofed-over space in which trucks would be unloaded and loaded in bad weather. Useful and necessary improvements of this kind should be made, Mr Young declared, if the Department wished to pursue enterprisingly and with hope of success its aims of shifting long-dis-tance transport traffic from road to rail.